2,464 research outputs found
A Novel Use of Light Guides and Wavelength Shifting Plates for the Detection of Scintillation Photons in Large Liquid Argon Detectors
Scintillation light generated as charged particles traverse large liquid
argon detectors adds valuable information to studies of weakly-interacting
particles. This paper uses both laboratory measurements and cosmic ray data
from the Blanche dewar facility at Fermilab to characterize the efficiency of
the photon detector technology developed at Indiana University for the single
phase far detector of DUNE. The efficiency of this technology was found to be
0.48% at the readout end when the detector components were characterized with
laboratory measurements. A second determination of the efficiency using cosmic
ray tracks is in reasonable agreement with the laboratory determination. The
agreement of these two efficiency determinations supports the result that
minimum ionizing muons generate photons/MeV as
they cross the LAr volume.Comment: Accepted version (without final editorial corrections
Bi-layer Kinetic Inductance Detectors for space observations between 80-120 GHz
We have developed Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors (LEKID)
sensitive in the frequency band from 80 to 120~GHz. In this work, we take
advantage of the so-called proximity effect to reduce the superconducting gap
of Aluminium, otherwise strongly suppressing the LEKID response for frequencies
smaller than 100~GHz. We have designed, produced and optically tested various
fully multiplexed arrays based on multi-layers combinations of Aluminium (Al)
and Titanium (Ti). Their sensitivities have been measured using a dedicated
closed-circle 100 mK dilution cryostat and a sky simulator allowing to
reproduce realistic observation conditions. The spectral response has been
characterised with a Martin-Puplett interferometer up to THz frequencies, and
with a resolution of 3~GHz. We demonstrate that Ti-Al LEKID can reach an
optical sensitivity of about ~ (best pixel), or
~ when averaged over the whole array. The optical
background was set to roughly 0.4~pW per pixel, typical for future space
observatories in this particular band. The performance is close to a
sensitivity of twice the CMB photon noise limit at 100~GHz which drove the
design of the Planck HFI instrument. This figure remains the baseline for the
next generation of millimetre-wave space satellites.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, submitted to A&
NIKEL: Electronics and data acquisition for kilopixels kinetic inductance camera
A prototype of digital frequency multiplexing electronics allowing the real
time monitoring of microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKIDs) arrays for
mm-wave astronomy has been developed. Thanks to the frequency multiplexing, it
can monitor simultaneously 400 pixels over a 500 MHz bandwidth and requires
only two coaxial cables for instrumenting such a large array. The chosen
solution and the performances achieved are presented in this paper.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figure
Quantification of Ophthalmic Changes After Long-Duration Spaceflight, and Subsequent Recovery
A subset of crewmembers are subjected to ophthalmic structure changes due to long-duration spaceflight (>6 months). Crewmembers who experience these changes are described as having Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS). Characteristics of SANS include optic disk edema, cotton wool spots, choroidal folds, refractive error, and posterior globe flattening. SANS remains a major obstacle to deep-space and planetary missions, requiring a better understanding of its etiology. Quantification of ocular, structural changes will improve our understanding of SANS pathophysiology. Methods were developed to quantify 3D optic nerve (ON) and ON sheath (ONS) geometries, ON tortuosity, and posterior globe deformation using MR imaging
Calculation of the Density of States Using Discrete Variable Representation and Toeplitz Matrices
A direct and exact method for calculating the density of states for systems
with localized potentials is presented. The method is based on explicit
inversion of the operator . The operator is written in the discrete
variable representation of the Hamiltonian, and the Toeplitz property of the
asymptotic part of the obtained {\it infinite} matrix is used. Thus, the
problem is reduced to the inversion of a {\it finite} matrix
Electronics and data acquisition demonstrator for a kinetic inductance camera
A prototype of digital frequency multiplexing electronics allowing the real
time monitoring of kinetic inductance detector (KIDs) arrays for mm-wave
astronomy has been developed. It requires only 2 coaxial cables for
instrumenting a large array. For that, an excitation comb of frequencies is
generated and fed through the detector. The direct frequency synthesis and the
data acquisition relies heavily on a large FPGA using parallelized and
pipelined processing. The prototype can instrument 128 resonators (pixels) over
a bandwidth of 125 MHz. This paper describes the technical solution chosen, the
algorithm used and the results obtained
Supersymmetric Quantization of Anisotropic Scalar-Tensor Cosmologies
In this paper we show that the spatially homogeneous Bianchi type I and
Kantowski-Sachs cosmologies derived from the Brans-Dicke theory of gravity
admit a supersymmetric extension at the quantum level. Global symmetries in the
effective one-dimensional actions characterize both classical and quantum
solutions. A wide family of exact wavefunctions satisfying the supersymmetric
constraints are found. A connection with quantum wormholes is briefly
discussed.Comment: In Press, Class. Quantum Grav. 20 pages, Late
Period-doubling bifurcation in strongly anisotropic Bianchi I quantum cosmology
We solve the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the minisuperspace of a cosmological
model of Bianchi type I with a minimally coupled massive scalar field as
source by generalizing the calculation of Lukash and Schmidt [1]. Contrarily to
other approaches we allow strong anisotropy. Combining analytical and numerical
methods, we apply an adiabatic approximation for , and as new feature we
find a period-doubling bifurcation. This bifurcation takes place near the
cosmological quantum boundary, i.e., the boundary of the quasiclassical region
with oscillating -function where the WKB-approximation is good. The
numerical calculations suggest that such a notion of a ``cosmological quantum
boundary'' is well-defined, because sharply beyond that boundary, the
WKB-approximation is no more applicable at all. This result confirms the
adequateness of the introduction of a cosmological quantum boundary in quantum
cosmology.Comment: Latest update of the paper at
http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~mbach/publics.html#
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